


Reverb

by logosLycanthrope



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Like Fluke but in Spaaaace, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 11:21:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8798917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/logosLycanthrope/pseuds/logosLycanthrope
Summary: Pidge's time is up. Or, it's supposed to be. No matter how it's happened, she's been given another chance, to find her family, to bring down Zarkon. A brand new life. But with this new life comes a lot of things to get used to. Like a stark lack of thumbs. Pidge Centric, dark at the beginning but lightens up quickly.





	1. Falling

She hears the scream first, her name piercing through the throes of combat. The pain doesn't come until what feels like an eternity, and the sickening wet sound of the Galra soldier pulling his robotic arm out of her gut barely registers with her. She falls, too much damage to keep standing up. The light fades from the end of her weapon as it drops away from her hand.

 

The triumphant looking galra is blasted away, by the size and color of the shots, it's from Lance's bayard. Hunk reaches her first, cradling her tiny form in his arms. Her lip curls up in that familiar, cheshire way, crimson dribbling out from under it. Wouldn't Keith be jealous? He'd have killed for the honor of being the one who got to do the cradling.

 

She isn't sure if she's delirious from the rapid blood loss or if she’s just trying to make herself feel better.

 

Lance joins Hunk, whose quivering eyes are dropping heavy, hot tears all over her face. Lance is screaming and pleading for her to hang on, that they'll get her to the healing pods. She raises a hand to touch her friends’ faces.

 

Keith comes next, barreling past them. She knows he's angry, not at her, but at the Galra who's done it. The culprit is trying to drag himself away, but Keith, his voice a wall of vengeful noise, a battle roar, drives his bayard down through the enemy’s chest again and again and again until he's satisfied. The Galra lies still, his life fluids marking the blade and Keith’s fingers. The red paladin returns to Pidge and holds one of her hands, turning to look at the other two, a look between rage and urgency and fear marring his features.

 

Shiro is the last to arrive, and he's silent. He trembles like a newborn deer, and his breathing looks off tempo, erratic. She knows he feels helpless, she sees it on his face. Shock, anguish, and guilt. She wants to tell him that it's all right, but it isn't all right, and her lungs won't cooperate, all she can produce is gurgling, so she stops and holds her breath, trying to pretend she's dying peacefully, calmly, gracefully.

 

Dying.

 

Her life doesn't flash before her eyes, no, but she sees faces, not the ones before her. Allura and Coran, who can probably see them from the castle and won't get a chance to say goodbye. Pidge isn't angry that they aren't there. Not at all. She hopes they'll understand. She thinks about the Green Lion. Will the great mechanical cat miss her? She could consider her lion to be a friend by this point. Matt, and her father, and for the first time in what felt too long, her mother pop into her mind. They'll never see her again. That she'll regret most of all. She's failed her mission to bring them all back together.

 

She struggles to breathe again, and finally corrals her lungs back into control, she needs to say something. More gurgles and bloody fizz fall from her mouth before she gets it out.

 

“F-find them… for me…”

 

She's tired. Four more words and she'll allow herself rest her eyes.

 

“I love... you guys…”

 

Sappy, stupid, but she doesn't have the time nor strength to say more. Her heavy lids finally drop, and she feels the pain leak out of her, water from a cracked cup. She hears her name again, choked up with sobs and snot and sorrow. 

 

Pidge, Pidge, Katie, no.

 

It grows quieter, softer, further away. 

 

She feels surrounded by something warm, rhythmic, then suddenly is gripped with an all encompassing cold. She can't hear it, but she feels herself let out a sound in response. Her lungs seem to be working again, but she isn't thinking about that. Cold. Need to get warm. Everything is dark and silent, there is only touch, and somewhere close to her is what she needs. She moves toward it and rests against it, feeling the rhythm again. A nice rhythm. Go back to sleep. There is no more pain, no more hurt. A peaceful nothingness covers her like a security blanket.

 

She drifts off again.

 


	2. A Long Time To Think

Pidge had grown tired of the darkness, of the silence. She had a few ideas of where she was. An animal's nest, she smelled animal all the time, but couldn't recognize the odor, and certainly didn't recognize the animal it belonged to.

Well, she recognized it as “mother”. Part of her did, which was a strange feeling. Her human mom was back home, probably tired from crying her eyes out, all alone, or spending restless nights worrying about the rest of the Holt Family. She thought about her a lot. Pidge thought about a lot of things a lot.

Like how she wasn't still dead. Reincarnation. Well, that was a shocker. It had taken her… well, it was hard to tell how much time ever passed. But it had taken her a good long time to figure out what had happened, and the basic gist of where she was. After that, her time was divided into sleeping, thinking about other things, and feeding.

Pidge tried to think of that last part clinically. Sure, it was better than food goo in several ways, but she couldn't shake that degradation. Last time she could see and hear and really exist, she was fourteen, over halfway to adulthood. To say this was a setback in her overall growth was an understatement.

Pidge grew stronger and stronger over these cycles of activity, soon she had at least some control of her legs. She had four of those. Maybe two and a pair of arms,  considering that the universe was full of alien life who could have any sort of life development stages. She could just as easily be some sort of livestock, like a space pig.

She hoped she wasn't a space pig.

She didn't seem to have any littermates, just her and the creature who had brought her back into the world. Well, that and… she wasn't sure what it was. A force of some sort had rubbed against her, from head to tail. Yeah, she had one of those now, but the mysterious thing was a little more interesting. It happened more than once, but never long, as “mother” would get agitated and whatever it was would leave.

It would occasionally be accompanied by oddly familiar odors. She could have sworn she smelled whiffs of the green slop she used to have to stomach. Hints of sweat. Lance's face mask cream. Hunk’s culinary creations. Motor oil.

She really missed them. Hunk, Keith, Shiro, Lance. They'd have no idea that she was alive. She'd love to tell them. Heck, if this was what happened when you died, she could make fighting the Galra a walk in the park. Death was nothing.

Well, if remembering everything was normal. Probably not.

One day she noticed something. Something she barely recognized it at first, sensation she hadn't experienced in forever. Noise, real noise! Her mother's breathing, a steady humming, they were inside something, a house, a building. Her odds of getting eaten by a wild animal was certainly down, at least, so that was a plus.

Pidge tested her voice. “Hello?” was what she was hoping for. But a squeak was all that came out. The warm body next to her squeaked in return, and was actually joined by other, outside squeaks. There must have been more of them. Pidge had a bad feeling that she was something tiny. A gerbil, a hamster? What if she was one of those mice they breed to feed snakes and lizards with!

She really didn't want to be snake food.

A nap later, something else reached her ears. Something that made her suck in a breath, certain her heart had stopped.

“Hey, Mullet Boy! Gimmie back my jacket!”

“Not until you apologize for using my knife to chop vegetables!”

“Why do you even need a knife? Your Bayard’s a sword!”

Keith? Lance? They didn't sound close, but she could hear them clearly. That was them, it had to be. Unless Pidge was losing it. Suddenly, the mysterious pressure ran along her spine again.

“How's it going, little guy?”

She knew that voice too. She squeaked loudly in response.

_Hunk! Hunk! Thank God, it's you! I missed you so much!_

Her legs weren't quite stable enough for her to turn around and grab what she assumed was one of his fingers, but she tried anyways.

“Friendly today, aren't y--”

Angry squeaks cut him off.

_Wait! He's a friend!_

_“_ All right, bitey, all right.”

Pidge could hear him moving away, and tried to follow the sound of his footsteps. Eventually, they were too far away to hear, and she ran into a wall of the nest. She trilled out her frustration for a good thirty seconds at least, then crawled back to her usual spot to think.

_I'm back on the castle. Must be a mouse. Unless someone brought some other small, squeaking thing on board. Probably not. Who would've guessed that one of them was a lady? Well, congratulations, Miss Mouse, it's a Pidge._

So the good news was, she'd come back. She still had a chance. More questions to think about. Could she still pilot the lion? The last green paladin couldn't have been a human, so clearly species didn't matter. She'd have to make some modifications to the cockpit, so she could work the controls. Green probably wouldn't mind. Would the lion even recognize her? What about on the battlefield? She wouldn't be able to use her bayard, the thing would be like ten times her size! And her armor, there was no way it would fit. If they kept it. Did they bury her in it? Well, bury her body. Her old one. If they kept it, did that mean they were planning to replace her? Someone needed to pilot the green lion if they were going to form Voltron. And how was she supposed to explain to the team that she was a mouse now? Could she learn how to talk again? Maybe she could do that mind meld thing with Allura like the other mice could.

That would have to wait until she could see.

How long did it take for space mice to open their eyes? Pidge wasn't entirely sure how long it was. But eventually, she was no longer just listening to the goings on around her. Hunk and Lance goofing off like old times, Coran telling one of his stories, Allura talking to the other mice, occasionally directing a sentence towards Pidge herself. Keith and Lance getting into another squabble, Shiro keeping the peace.

Eventually, her eyes finally opened, and she blearily looked out on the world around her. She was back. She was finally back. And soon, everyone else would know that too.

  



End file.
